The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-06-18

high priced labor Of Michigan against the
"pauper" labor Of New York, as 1t Is
against the "pauper" labor Of Holland
And II free trade between high and low
wage paying countries degrades the higher
wage to the level of the lower, why doesn't
the New York salt worker pull down the
high wage receiving laborer of Michigan
Simply because Product Is the law OF
wages In both states. The New York
laborer produces 1895 pounds of salt per
day. The Michigan laborer 800 pounds
That is while the New York laborer pro
duces but GO per cent AS much salt he re.
ceives 63 per cent as much wages-an illus
tration again Of the law, The higher the
wages, the cheaper the labor. The Michi
gan laborer produces moe salt for the
same money than the New Yorker; his
labor Is cheapest, therefore, though his
wages are highest
A manufacturer Of coarse jute sacking
In New York appeared before the Ways
and Means Committee In Washington, de-
handing protection for his sacking. He
stated that, while he paid heavy duty up
on jute, he was forced to pay dollar per
day for his women weavers, whereas the
Indian manufacturer paid no duty upon
his jute, 1t being native to his country, and
employed his labor at six cents ger day
and Insisted that his high priced labor
should be protected" against the pauper
labor of India. But upon investi cation 1t
was found that single weaver here pro-
duced from one to two hundred yards, max
Ing the labor cost of weaving less than a
cent per yard that In India the weaver
using her fingers, toes, and peculiarly
shaped stick in funnel could make about
two yards per day, showing the labor cost
of pauper production to be about three
cents per yard, illustrating again the law
that the higher priced is the cheaper labor,
and If either needed protection against the
other, II was the pauper, not the high wage
laborer
In 1880 the average wages paid in the
glass industries in the United States were
1918 per annum, and the labor cost was AZ
per cent. In Illinois, wages in the glass
industry were $467 per annum, and the
labor cost of production was but 80 per
cent of the product In La Sale county,
wages in the glass industry were sos, and
labor cost of product was but 81 per cent,
showing that the highest paid labor yielded
a greater per cent of product and hence
was cheapest. There may be exceptions
Labor unions, strikes, and lock-outs may
make temporary arrangement; but this Is
the law of wages In 1880, Kentucky paid
in the glass industry but 1888 per annum
If free trade between Illinois and England
would drag wages here down to the ERglish
standard, why doesn't free trade between
Illinois and Kentucky drag wages here
down to the Kentucky standard? Because,
though wages in Illinois are higher, labor
here is cheaper than in Kentucky, as there
the labor cost of production was 40 per
cent of its product. So, too, while wages
in the glass industry in $780, in New Jer-
sey were but 1868, the labor cost of pro-
duction was 46 per cent. How can free
trade between these lower wage paying
states and Illinois drag wages here down to
their level when labor, though higher paid,
is cheaper here than there-the labor cost
here being but 80 per cent of production?
For the same reason free trade with Bel
GUM could not drag down wages in the
glass industry here, in the county of La
Sale, the labor cost of glass producing there
being, as we shall see, 4r.} per cent, while
here in this county, though wages are $5O5
per annum, the labor cost of production is
but 3, per cent,-it being the labor cost of
production and not the wages of labor,
which determines competing power.
If free trade between nations or peoples
tends to equalize wages, or degrade the
higher wage to the level of the lower, 1t
ought somewhere, at some time to have
thdt iCeult' nat IL uoCs uot, anu
never did, tend to that end, is conclusively
proven by the fact that where we find free
trade is precisely where We find the great
est diversity-the greatest and most pro
nounced difference in wages. We have be-
fore seen that England is the highest wage
paying country of Europe, and it is the
only free trade country of Europe. She
pays over $50 per cent higher wages than
the average paid upon the continent; yet
for forty five years "pauper" made products
of the continent and the world have been
absolutely free to invade her markets;
and in the face of this fact the wages of
English labor have steadily advanced. If
the GO per cent lower wages of the CONT
nent cannot, under free trade, drag English
wages down, how could the 20 per cent
lower wages of England, under free trade,
drag American wages down:
The industries of Maine, Massachusetts,
and Maryland have been and are similar.
For hundred years there has been abso
Into free trade hetwean them. They have